Sunday, 6 December 2015

Talatu
Olulana, the founder and CEO of Raregems Nigeria Limited, is the
pioneer dealer in precious metals in Nigeria. She started the
business in year 2,000 with just N5,000 out of her love for jewellery. She
is a model of SME success in Nigeria. A woman that looks beyond what will
put daily food on her table, she focuses on leaving a mark for the
generations behind.

How
she got to where she is today

As a young
girl growing up, I remember I used to have loads of jewellery magazines though
I didn’t have any jewellery of my own. I took interest in looking at the
jewellers, especially the stones and I began to learn the names. My first opportunity
of dealing with jewellery came when I was in higher institution. I had a
friend who was selling gold and any time she came from Italy, she was giving me
some to sell on commission basis and I was even selling more than her. By the
time I graduated from school, I already knew I was going to deal in
jewellery and I didn’t bother looking for paid employment. I just made
enquiries on how to go about it and I was told to go to Cotonou. Because I
didn’t have money on my own, my mother gave me N5,000 and I started
buying and selling costume jewellery. I hawked my goods from shop to shop
and to offices. Many times, I sold everything same day I bought them but
because of the little capital, I found myself going to Cotonou three times a
week. We started branding wedding rings with our logo R&G, on it after four
years and later to necklace and earrings with our logo on the hooks.

Talatu
Olulana

It was
curiosity that brought me into branding and that was what gave me breakthrough
in the business. In the course of selling my stuff, a customer ordered for a
wedding ring with her name written on it and she gave me pictures of what she
wanted. I didn’t have idea of how to do it but I took it as a challenge. That
was how I started searching the internet to look for a company which could do
it for me and I got one in France. Because of the money involved due to the
diamond stone the customer wanted on the ring, I didn’t want to take the risk
of sending money and so I decided to travel to get it with the little savings I
had. After getting it done, from there, I was introduced to a lot of people
which was a major breakthrough for me.

Today, it is
not only me, we are a company. I see Raregems as bigger than me because we now
have 140 retail partners all over the country. We also have in Dublin, America
and France. I did a short course in design when I went to buy the ring which I
completed online in Nigeria because of the short period I stayed. I don’t want
to take glory for a lot of work being put in by people behind the scene and
that is why I like to use ‘we’.

Not
satisfying with just buying and selling

Once you put
your hands on the plough, there is no looking back. I realised that there
are lots of things to do. We went into precious Metals business in 2010 and, by
God’s grace, we are the first indigenous company in Nigeria to do that.
We offer opportunity for people who want to build gold or silver reserves just
like the way they invest in building houses and other aspects of investment
because they appreciate in value. The price of gold four years ago is not
the same today. One can build it over time, sell and make profit on daily
basis when you see the price increases just like the way people trade in shares
and foreign currencies. Precious metals are tangible than shares because
if you buy a piece of gold, you can hold it, it is yours and, in case of
emergency or any situation, you can sell part of it and go to another
location to start your life. This you cannot do in building
investment as it is not possible to cut part of a building and sell. Even if
you can do it, it will take time before you can see somebody to buy half
building.

How
do you do it?

We have
equipment for casting them which is more of local, but we have higher level
which is minting, but because of finance, we can’t do that now. We have the
mode where we smelt the gold and cast it. Building a reserve is not like
jewellery. You mould the gold bars because the temptation of wearing it is
high. If it is jewellery, it is not pure gold because the stones will be
removed when you want to sell it and stones in your gold is not gold. When you
have gold bars, it is raw gold which is called professional gold and jewellery
does not fall into that category. Another advantage of having gold reserves is
that you can cut out of your gold bar and sell to meet immediate needs which
you cannot do with your building.

On
security

You can talk
to your bank to keep it in their vault to avoid theft and, if you can’t, our
company can talk to our bank to keep it for you.

To
people who wants to invest

For a
starter, you can start with gold or silver. It is good because they appreciate
and, with Raregems, you are sure of selling it at the current World Stock Price
for that day any time you want to sell unlike the gold traders in the general
market that toss people around.

We believe
that the present government will improve power and also support us to bring in
equipment for production of jewellery in Nigeria because we have all the raw
materials here. We have the stones, brass and one of the best grades of
steel in Nigeria. If we bring in the equipment, it will employ a lot of people.

Impact
on young people

After 15
years of growth, we have impacted a lot of people both young and old. We give
people the opportunity to be empowered financially. We give jewellery to
people to retail and make money. It may not be their main source of income
because lots of them work in offices, and they don’t need capital to start
because we already have an e-store where we give them opportunity to make up to
50-100% profit on each item. We also have mentoring platform for people who are
not in jewellery business because I went through a lot when I started. I didn’t
have anyone to go to for mentoring and direction. So, the platform is for young
people who have business ideas and they are passionate about what they are
doing.

Raregems did
not just emerge. A lot of work and structuring went underground and it is not
by luck that got us to where we are today. We also teach people how not to eat
all their profit, however small it may be. In my family, they used to call
me Ijebu businesswoman but I was looking at the future that I had to grow the
business to the point where it could sustain itself. So I was saving my profit
since I knew I did not have anyone to support me financially. That is part of
what we teach people because no investor will invest without seeing anything on
ground.

Advice
to young people

Nigeria is
land opportunities. Our population alone gives us advantage though it maybe a
disadvantage to some people. For entrepreneurs, it is a great advantage because
there are lots of areas of people’s needs. There is room for people to
build new businesses but our young people need to be focused and persistent.
Nobody will give them money to start anything and so they should start at
whatever level they are. Raregems too took a route before it got to where it is
today. Young people should also be opened to knowledge. I learnt a lot
from reading. One does not need to go to the four walls of the classroom.
They can learn online.

To
women

Though I
started before I got married, today, I have five children. I am someone that
plans a lot. I draw my plan as a project which I heard from my spiritual
father, Bishop Oyedepo. He will always tell us to take everything in life as a
project which make us to get serious. I prioritise my children first and then
my business.

Women can
actually work and at the same time protect their home front. Internet has made
everything easy, women can work online and still have time to take care of the children.
Housewives too can maximise the potentials of the Internet to become what they
want to be without having stores or office and make money on daily basis.

Watchword

It is the
fear of God. You cannot put God out of you but to put all your trust in Him.
That is where I get my balance from, otherwise, I will find myself
swinging and not knowing where I belong. Once you get it right with God, every
other thing will be on that foundation. (vanguard)

TECTONO

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